It never happened
by ALMH
Summary: AU 4.1. Donna takes Rose into the TARDIS.


Donna helped the Doctor put her bags in her new room, looking around at the... Well, perfection. It was her ideal room, everything exactly where it should be. They walked out of her room, passing a plain white door on the way.

"What's in there?" she asked him curiously. He looked up briefly at the door, then at Donna.

"That was Rose's room," he replied. Donna nodded sadly.

"Still haven't found her?" she asked him sympathetically.

"No, no way of seeing her unless the walls of reality are weakened. Even then it'd be the end of the world," he said sadly. Donna could imagine him spending the hours, days, weeks even, working this out.

"I'm sorry," Donna replied. She then paused, and spoke again. "Do you have a picture of her that I could see?" The Doctor looked carefully at Donna, before bringing out a small tattered photograph, and handing it to Donna.

She looked carefully at the picture. "That was taken at the 2012 Olympics. We stayed around for the entire time. We then went to her mum's, and then there was the battle of Canary Wharf... I only saw her once after that, and even then I didn't say good bye properly."

She looked down at the picture. On the left stood the Doctor, one arm around a blond haired girl. Donna looked at the happy, full of life face which vaguely resembled the face she now recognised to be the Doctor. There were fewer wrinkles, no bags under his eyes and life-full eyes.

Her attention turned once again to the woman next to him who was apparently his Rose. She seemed to be very young - early twenties to late teens. She seemed to have that same life in her eyes, and her smile was genuine - she was genuinely happy to be there. "So who won the Olympics?" she teased lightly. "She looks beautiful - if a bit too heavy on the make up."

The Doctor smiled weakly and took the picture back off her. There was a lull in the conversation.

"I've still got mum's car keys!" she exclaimed, waving them in front of his face. "I'll just go get 'em back to her, and then we can go, yeah?" The Doctor nodded as Donna rushed past him, running out of the TARDIS, dialling her mum on her phone.

"Mum? It's Donna. Sylvia rushed off into a conversation "-yeah, I know mum, I saw it, little fat people. Listen, I've got to go. I'm going to stay with Veena for a bit.

"...It was in the sky!" Sylvia continued.

"Yeah, I know. Spaceship. But I've still got the car keys. Look, there's a bin on Brook Street, about thirty feet from the corner, I'm going to leave them in there." In the next sentence, Sylvia's surprise was obvious as Donna threw the keys into the bin.

"What?" she asked with disdain. "A bin?"

"Yes, that's it," Donna replied with only the barest element of sarcasm. "A bin."

"You can't do that!" Sylvia protested.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop complaining, the car's just down the road a bit. Got to go, really got to go. Bye." Donna hung up, ignoring Sylvia's protests. She looked round happily, and then walked over to the nearest woman.

"Excuse me?" she asked the woman. "There's a woman gonna come, tell her..." her voice trailed off.

"You alright?" the woman asked her.

"What's your name?" Donna asked her. She looked exactly like the Rose from the picture, but maybe she was imagining things.

The woman looked at Donna. "Doesn't matter. You were gonna ask me something?"

"Yeah..." Donna stared at her. "Is your name Rose?" The woman looked surprised.

"How do you know my name?" she asked her.

"You used to travel with the Doctor, didn't you?" Donna pressed, getting more excited.

"Yeah, do you know him?" Rose asked her, looking happier now, and in anticipation.

"Do I? I'm just about to go off travelling with him - come on, he'll be so happy to see you!" She grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her towards the TARDIS.

"You sure it's alright?" Rose asked her.

"Course it is, silly. Honestly, I keep hearing so much about you. Honestly, he's gonna be ecstatic to see you, and I want him to be happy. He saved my life, wanna repay him someway, you know?" Rose just nodded as Donna opened the door into the TARDIS, closing it behind Rose.

"Doctor?" she yelled. "Doctor?"

"What Donna?" he yelled from deep in the recesses of the TARDIS. Donna turned round to Rose to grin... but found no one there. The door hadn't opened, nothing had happened. Donna turned round fully, holding out her arm as if hoping to be able to touch her, but she was already long gone.

"Rose?" she whispered.

"What is it Donna?" the Doctor asked as he walked into the console room. Donna quickly turned round, tears threatening to appear in her eyes.

"Nothing," she quietly whispered. "Nothing. So, where now?"

"I thought I'd let you decide," he replied happily, his hands already on the console equipment. "Anywhere in time and space, your choice. Past or future?"

Donna watched him for a moment, before her mind was made up. She would never tell him. Ignorance, after all, is bliss.


End file.
